How Did Crypto Exchanges Perform in Q1 2026? Key Insights From CryptoQuant

In the primary quarter of 2026, the crypto market skilled a transparent cooling in consumer participation following a cycle peak in the months prior. This decline in market participation was evident in crypto alternate buying and selling exercise.

Data gathered by CryptoQuant on alternate exercise in Q1 reveals that merchants and traders focused on main exchanges amid a decline in general buying and selling exercise. Large liquid venues attracted essentially the most capital in periods of sturdy worth momentum. Within the identical interval, perpetual futures dominated market construction, reflecting an amazing focus of buying and selling exercise in derivatives.

Market Sees Contraction in Trading Activity

The decline in buying and selling exercise was evident in centralized alternate buying and selling quantity, which fell roughly 48% from the October 2025 high to $4.3 trillion in March 2026. This is the bottom the determine has fallen to since October 2024.

On the opposite hand, perpetual markets, being the first driver of liquidity and alternate income growth in the course of the quarter, rose to $3.5 trillion in March. Perpetual buying and selling quantity was 4 instances spot quantity ($0.8 trillion) in the final month. On a cumulative degree, perpetual quantity has reached $4.5 trillion this yr.

Binance led the perpetual futures market with 40% market share and $1.4 trillion in month-to-month quantity. OKX and Bybit adopted far behind, with shares of 19% and 13%, respectively.

While derivatives exercise spiked as crypto property witnessed a reduction rally in the third week of March, many of the open curiosity development occurred on Binance. The crypto alternate noticed the very best 24-hour improve in open curiosity for each Bitcoin and Ethereum by mid-March, with development of $829 million and $1.6 billion, respectively. Other buying and selling venues like Gate and Bybit adopted go well with, contributing to Bitcoin and Ethereum perpetual futures open curiosity climbing to $23 billion and $16 billion, respectively.

Binance Dominates Spot and Derivatives Activity

Furthermore, Binance cemented its place because the dominant spot buying and selling venue. The platform led spot volumes with $248 billion in March, accounting for 32% market share. Although the market share declined from 37% in October 2025, the alternate nonetheless instructions a share 3 times bigger than different platforms like MEXC (9%) and Bybit (7%).

Meanwhile, the market witnessed elevated competitors, however with out important consolidation in management. This implies that secondary exchanges like MEXC, Gate, Bybit, and Crypto.com recorded spot quantity development; nevertheless, none have approached Binance’s scale.

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